Modern 4000

swimdusty

swimdusty

New Member
I have a 2000X that has been in the family for 50 years. I had it redone by a local guy and it sounds better than I remember from my childhood. I bought a Sansui 4000 to go through myself. I have not researched any mods to incorporate into the design, but plan to do any upgrades that I can. I want to modify the amp pretty drastically to bring it up to date. I want to take the parts that mean something out of the box and put them into a smaller, more appropriate case that will be simplified on the front panel, just a power switch, input selector, and a volume knob. The back will have a modern power plug, banana jacks for output, and balanced (xlr) inputs. The internals will only be preamp and amp, eliminating the tuner and tone controls completely. I thought about taking the preamp, but I've heard it adds most of the sansui flavor that I want. I am going point to point wiring instead of boards and insulated internal wires. I'll need to figure out how to arrange the heatsink in the new case, but should be too bad. Is there any reason this is a bad idea?
 
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A FrankenSui... oh, goodness, this will have the traditionalists in the village reaching for their pitchforks and flaming torches...
 
Yes, of course, and I should have acknowledged your commitment to your 2000X more clearly! My apologies.

My reaction was more one of amused anticipation about how some traditionalists might respond.

Actually, I am rather impressed at your ambition with what you propose in your project, and wish you all the best with it.

It's like old cars: a hot rod project that gives new life to components of a vehicle that would otherwise be unrecoverable can be just as interesting in its own way (and involve just as much skill and technical expertise) as a ground-up restoration to original spec.

Cheers
 
swimdusty said:
Is there any reason this is a bad idea?
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I don't see any reason it's a good idea. It's going to be a huge amount of work, in order to what, have a 30WPC solid state amp in a box? And a pile of leftover Sansui 4000 parts? I mean, maybe if you had one that got smashed up in shipping, and the faceplate and knobs and tuning section were all trashed, it might be justifiable. I just don't see why you'd want to.

The Sansui 4000 is a NICE one. They restore well and sound amazing. I've done a few and they are really great receivers. Bringing it up to date means replacing the capacitors and transistors, there's no need to rip it apart.
 
Agree with @EastPoint here. If you want an amp with no tuner, Sansui made some excellent capacitor coupled integrated amps in that same power class in the early 70's. The proposed plan is going to be a ton of work to butcher up what is a well regarded receiver that is far more desirable intact; even if the tuner goes unused.

Fabrication work to mount the needed boards in any kind of decent looking case will be a fairly advanced project. The 4000 has plug in driver cards; so the card slots would need to be transferred and properly mounted to retain the cards securely. Omitting the tone controls out of circuit can be achieved with the tone defeat switch.

I don't intend to demean a project; and anyone is free to do as they wish with gear they own. But keep in mind that once chopped and modded to one's own taste, it will have virtually no resale value to anyone else if you later decide you no longer want it. Custom built tube amps can be a tough enough sell, an old (even if restored) transistor amp of the late 60's further stripped of it's original appeal will be viewed as a boat anchor.

Those are my thoughts, for what they are worth. I hate to discourage tinkering and do it yourself projects, but I have a difficult time getting excited about an idea like this.
 
I just don't comprehend the whole "up to date" idea. Vintage Sansui's sound better than 99% of modern amps that I have heard. I'm also just sick to death of the "no tone controls" movement. Go ahead and butcher the Sansui, it's yours to destroy.
 
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Or better, they provide a source for magic smoke should you need more.

I also don't see the point of butchering a perfectly restorable 4000 to create a bastardized integrated amp. Just buy an AU-555a and enjoy instant Sansui bliss.

- Pete
 
Wow, GrisPato! I’ve seen his posts on FB, but I didn’t know he has a website, too!
I know he has a thing for the AU-555, because of his FB posts, and I know he has a lot of them.
 
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